Blue Mass Group

The MA GOP must be starting to think of Broadside, Jim Braude’s show on NECN, as something of a buzzsaw heading straight for them.  Last week, Mary Connaughton ended up looking frankly quite foolish as she repeatedly failed to answer simple questions.  Even most RMGers were deeply disappointed.

Yesterday, it was Jim McKenna’s turn.  McKenna, you may recall, is the unlikely GOP candidate for Attorney General who pulled off the quite impressive feat of getting himself on the ballot via a write-in campaign.  But his mini-debate with Martha Coakley on Braude’s show was awful.  It’s not that all of what he said was so terrible, though some of it was – he did flat-out refuse to answer several easy questions (like his position on gay marriage – inexcusable for an AG candidate), rather like Connaughton, and was embarrassed by Braude when Braude called him out on insinuations he was making.  It’s that he mumbled, and hemmed and hawed his way through the whole thing.  The guy inspires about as much confidence as a jelly donut.  After watching the 15-minute debate, I came away with the firm sense that Jim McKenna is not in any way ready to hold statewide office.  Watch it and see what you think.

And, for good measure, here’s some bootleg video (HT shpanks2009) of McKenna mumbling his way through a colossally lame answer to a question about how he’s hardly bothered to vote in the last decade.  (Transcript after the flip – it’s a bit tough to hear.)

On Tuesday, October 5th, we get a chance to say thanks to the “mensch” of local banks. If you move in local non-profit circles, you know “Wainwright” is the usual answer when people ask, “Know any socially responsible, progressive banks?” Wainwright has helped all manner of causes and programs – housing, poverty, LGBT issues, environmental, youth, recovery, HIV/AIDS, etc. – financially and other ways under the visionary leadership of Co-Chairman Bob Glassman.   Glassman expounded on Wainwright Bank’s philosophy of doing well by doing good in 2007 in American Banker: “There’s nothing over the years involving our approach to social justice or to the nonprofit community that has inhibited our ability to be profitable,” he said. “If anything, it’s been very supportive of that side of it. The two absolutely mutually reinforce one another.” Bob Glassman and Wainwright are being honored with the Social Justice Legend Award at a fundraiser Tuesday. The event appropriately benefits the Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action, whose mission is advocating and organizing for social and economic justice and the protection of constitutional civil liberties. I’ll be there and hope some other BMG’rs will be too. We need to recognize the good guys in [...]

I am talking about the broadest interpretation here not just the tunnel vision spectrum of women’s rights.  Cold Dead Arm news this year responds to this morning’s mainstream news flu shot promotion.  This year H1N1 is included in the generic flu shot.  Last years regular flu shot affected my wife for a solid two months. Not, No Thanks but in my cold dead arm.

Food sovereignty is an issue we will likely hear a lot about in coming years. Basically, it is the right a community has to determine where its food comes from. Outbreaks of food-borne illness receive great attention, but concerns about our food system are growing even when it is ‘working.’ We need to take a hard look at the system that stocks our grocery store shelves with products full of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and preservatives – and see if we can come up with a better way to feed a nation. It is no secret that pesticides and chemical fertilizers have far-reaching consequences. Trace amounts of toxins remain in fruits and vegetables that can build to dangerous levels after years of exposure. Runoff from fields gets into streams, soaking fish in chemicals, and contaminating drinking water for other animals that work their way up the food chain. In many places, people have no real option to get chemical-free food.  To be fair, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have helped farmers to increase yields and have ensured convenience and variety of food that is unequaled in human history. But it seems they may also be contributing to a host of health conditions [...]

** HLPerry already posted. ** The Herald is reporting that Paul Loscocco has withdrawn from the Lt. Governor race. Hoping to capitalize Charlie Baker is meeting with the press today at 11:00am. **Update** MSNBC reports the Loscocco will be supporting Baker.

Rep Paul Loscocco  has withdrawn from Cahill ticket. Republicans are really turning up the heat on fellow GOPers to support Charlie Baker or “you’ll never work again in the GOP!” Loscocco joins Cahill’s smarmy Republican consultants and advisers who were dragged away last week. Of course they did not offer to return the thousands and thousands of dollars they took from Cahill before bolting. Political courage is so rare.

Everett needs to monitor its absentee ballots

Thursday, September 30, 2010

By josh.resnek

The ugly specter of voting irregularities has been raised again following the release of statistics which show that 744 people in Everett voted by absentee ballot in recent elections.

The Independent has written at least five articles during the past three years detailing the bloated number of absentee ballots and the protocol for filing them.

By every stretch of imagination, 744 absentee ballots here is a large enough number to get the interest of the district attorney, which the Boston Globe suggested in a column that appeared in Tuesday’s edition.

[remainder of text deleted to comply with copyright law. -David]